Vehicular mounted sports equipment racks are well known as load carriers for carrying equipment from storage facilities to locations provided for a variety of recreational activities. Suitable vehicle mounting points for sports equipment racks optionally include the rear or the roof of a carrier vehicle. Rear mounted racks and roof racks may be used to transport bicycles, snow skis, snowboards, surfboards, and small water craft such as canoes and kayaks. Depending on the size of a piece of equipment, it may be possible for a single person to lift and load an item without the need of assistance. The loading of larger, heavier items, such as canoes and kayaks, however, typically requires more than one individual to raise the craft onto the equipment rack and to secure it in place using multiple retaining devices.
For sports such as kayaking, there may be a need to transport more than one craft depending on the number of kayak enthusiasts occupying a single vehicle. The need to carry more than one kayak increases the difficulty of loading and securing these craft onto the transporting vehicle. Attachment of kayaks to a load carrying sports equipment rack on a vehicle requires a rack structure that holds a first craft in place during loading of additional watercraft. Rack structures that support one watercraft while another is being loaded are presently readily available. Such devices typically use retaining straps wrapped around the kayaks between a pair of roof-mounted supports and the load bars of the vehicle roof rack which is mounted on the roof of a vehicle. It is possible, during loading of these devices, for a retaining strap to become entangled with the roof rack itself or for a portion of a strap to be trapped under a kayak previously loaded onto the sports equipment rack. While the application of tension to such entangled or trapped retaining strap may appear to sufficiently secure the craft to the vehicle, during transit it is possible for one or more of the retaining straps to become untangled or loosened. This is undesirable as untangled or loosened retaining straps can result in the shifting of the watercraft during transport, damage or loss of the watercraft, damage or loss to the transporting vehicle, damage or loss to other vehicles, or result in severe injury to nearby persons.
In view of the above-described deficiencies associated with known rack structures, there is a longfelt need to provide an improved rack structure for transporting elongate articles, such as canoes and kayaks, that overcomes these and other deficiencies.